Macrobrachium rosenbergii genome assembly and gene annotation

The giant river prawn (<i>Macrobrachium rosenbergii</i>), belonging to the order Decapoda, is one of the most widely cultured crustacean species. In recent years, the aquaculture of <i>M. rosenbergii</i> has faced challenges, including the degradation of germplasm resources and the emergence of viral diseases. The genomic information can serve as a valuable resource for developing molecular breeding programs for this important aquaculture species. Here we constructed a high-quality reference genome for <i>M. rosenbergii</i> by integrating Nanopore, Illumina, and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technologies. The final genome assembly is 3.18 Gb in size, with scaffold N50 and contig N50 of 62.73 Mb and 8.92 Mb, respectively. Approximately 98.6% of the assembled sequences were anchored into 59 pseudo-chromosomes. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) benchmark of the genome assembly reached 94.5%. Repetitive sequences comprise 43.77% of the assembled genome, and 17,436 protein-coding genes were annotated. The high-quality genome of<i> M. rosenbergii</i> will empower molecular breeding efforts and provide invaluable resources for comparative genomic analysis of decapod species.